Corpses and Course Catalogues
by displayheartcode
Summary: Will googled the phrases 'Do I get billed if my roommate's dead', 'Ten signs that he could be a murderer', and 'How to avoid the zombie apocalypse' just to be sure.


**AN: I'm in college writing a College AU that takes away some of the realities. For example, the crushing fear that you may not pass a class, and the common anxiety attacks! This year has been totally fun so far. Just the best!**

 **This was going to be a longer fic, but classes, anxiety, and medical issues are making this semester awful. On the bright side, this is very much inspired by Carmilla and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so you can happily watch those shows once you're done reading this.**

 **Please review!**

 **Disclaimer** : Ha. Ha, ha, ha, wouldn't t that be hilarious if I'd actually wrote the series?

 **Title** : Corpses and Course Catalogues

 **Word Count** : 2K

 **Summary** : Will googled the phrases 'Do I get billed if my roommate's dead?', 'Ten signs that he could be a murderer', 'How to avoid the zombie apocalypse' just to be sure.

* * *

First, it doesn't start off like this:

Will screamed as the horde of dead squirrels chased him up the stairs. Nico was screaming louder from the landing above how everything was under control as Minos was cackling some cliché villainous laughter nearby.

"I got this!" Their RA jumped over the railing, a glowing sword in hand—

Or like this:

Nico fiddled with the laces on his muddied sneaker, head bent so that he wouldn't look at Will's face. "Um, they call us talents. We're talented. With talentness. Magic stuff."

"Talentness," Will repeated. He lowered the creepy book that he'd found under Nico's bed that was written in an unfamiliar language next to the knife. "And your talent—" He gestured to the ripped black jeans and skull jewelry that his roommate often wore. Will was hoping for something ironic despite everything, like summoning rainbows and turning things into butterflies.

"Necromancy."

"Dead people?" Will asked. "Skeletons? Ghosts?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. He slowly got off the bed. "Is there any other kind?"

Will threw the book at him, and the started to hit him with his pillow. _"I've—had—an—exam—on—skeletons—you—"_

Or even this:

Will jumped as Annabeth appeared suddenly next to Percy; a Yankee's cap was bunched up in her fist _. "Nico!"_

"Secrecy, dude." Percy shook his head, a frown on his face.

Nico's scowl was starting to look less like the adorable one that he wore in the mornings. "Come on, he can help—"

"Have you ever experienced any strange abilities since puberty?" Annabeth turned to Will. Her gray eyes were scary to look at up close, like watching a storm that was about to unfold. "Have you ever seen things that you could never explain? Weird dreams? Diagnosed with ADHD or even dyslexia?"

"Uh," said Will.

But more like this:

Two weeks in, and Will never got to see his roommate at New Olympia College—a place set in Long Island that prided itself with its eccentric blend of liberal arts and intense programs that had a high promise of a job after graduating. The sophomore pre-med student had done his research, but his randomly assigned roommate wasn't on any sort of social media site.

And he was annoying economic with texting.

With all of the 'Yeahs' and "Whatevers' that were often the responses, Will was starting to get the idea that Nico di Angelo was either a robot or one of the rumored ghosts that according to legend would haunt the halls… Actually, those were his only guesses.

Nico di Angelo. Fellow sophomore, doing a double major in Forensic Sciences and Justice Studies, with a minor in Italian that was probably due to his last name. Maybe a hybrid of a ghost and a robot _because he was never in his room._ Will had moved in a day later, and was greeted with a side of the room that was very depressing with the black colors and horror movie posters. Nico was never there at the floor meetings. There weren't any shared classes, nor did people knew what he even looked like.

Well, no. There was one person.

Will had caught his RA coming back from a shower. His ridiculously Greek god-like body was still wet, and Will had to force his eyes to stay looking at the muscular shoulder. "Scrawny kid, you know." Percy raised his hand hover under his ear. "This tall, scowly, black hair. Hell, Solace. This is your roommate we're talking about." He paused. "Tried googling the kid?"

Staring harder, Will fought to keep the sarcasm from reaching his voice. "That's a great idea, Sherlock. Why haven't I done that earlier?"

He stomped his way back to his room where the trail of dirt was still on the carpet that Will had brought to campus. His passive-aggressive notes weren't stopping the mess, and Nico was a general slob. His side of the room was always a mess: covers half thrown off, clothes and wrappers on the floor, papers everywhere, and a growing collection of McDonalds bags in his trashcan.

And that _smell_.

Will was starting to hate the smell of fast food was lingering in the air.

"Dick," he said. He opened a window, brought the vacuum out, and started cleaning. "Ghost robots are dicks."

A voice drawled by the door, "Takes a dick to know a dick."

The vacuum fell to the floor. He was slightly taller than Will. His black jeans were smudged with dirt and caked to the bottom of his boots; his large aviator jacket covered any kind of shirt he was wearing. Olive skin stretched over sharp cheekbones, eyelashes long enough to cause shadows, and such incredibly dark eyes—

Will stopped staring enough for the realization to kick in. "You!"

Nico di Angelo did jazz hands. _"Me!"_ He padded into the room, stepping on the dirt trail to get to his bed. He dumped his backpack on the floor and turned to Will, a post-it note in his hand. "This is for you."

It was Will's original note about cleanliness, but it had something extra added to the bottom that was written in cursive handwriting. _Mess is still on my side, ass._

Will crumpled the note. Annoyance spiked through him, causing an eyebrow to twitch. "I live here, too!"

"So?" Nico faced his back to him. "My side of the room is my side of the room."

It was the beginning of a relationship, and the body count hadn't even started.

Yet.

* * *

Despite the arguing, they had strange, isolated moments when they almost got along.

Sometimes the topics in their classes would overlap, and would use each to help study, or bounce ideas for a paper that they needed to write. Beyond academics, they even had the same taste in shows that were being streamed on Netflix, but even that didn't guarantee that they would see each other often. Will had his frightening load of classes, homework, labs, extracurricular and Nico had…Nico had whatever kept him away at long hours in the night and away from being social.

Will was getting used this to this. He missed having his own room.

"Aren't you lonely?" Lou Ellen asked as they were studying for tomorrow's Anatomy and Physiology exam. Flash cards and study guides that all had emphasized parts with various highlighters were spread out on Will's bed.

Will traced the mitosis diagram that was in his textbook. "Not all of us are like you and Piper," he said, referring to her roommate who was well known throughout campus. She and Lou Ellen got along amazingly well, and could often be seen hanging out together. "It's fine. I don't mind being alone."

And then Nico stumbled into the room, bleeding profusely.

"I take that back," Will said, reaching for Nico. "I mind blood."

Lou Ellen jumped off the bed. "I'll get Percy!" She rushed out of the room to get help.

Nico weakly pushed Will away with his good arm, the one that didn't had a large gash bisecting his bicep. "M'okay, Solace. I got this."

"Like hell you do," said Will. He brought Nico to a chair, thinking about all of the first-aid training he had over the years, and was glad, after further inspection of the wound, that at least stitches weren't going to be used. "Stay still, okay?"

Grumbling, Nico clutched his arm closer to his chest. Will found an unused dishcloth and a small first-aid box that were tucked away in a drawer for emergencies like this. He got the largest Band-Aid that he could find, and wetted the dishcloth with a water bottle that he had.

"Do I get a lollipop if I'm a good enough patient?" Nico said, wincing as Will started to clean the blood.

"Only if he explains how he managed to get this." Will applied more pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding.

Nico pushed his hair away from his face, but left a smear of blood on his skin. "I, uh, fell and, uh, there was a stick?"

How was a stick able to create such an even wound? Will took the dishcloth off, his eyebrows raised to his blond hairline "Wasn't there more… _Weird."_ What was originally a long gash that encircled his upper bicep was now much smaller. The bleeding had stopped…and maybe that was it? Did the blood made it look bigger?

Nico was staring at him oddly, the color returning to his face.

And Will found himself staring back because Nico had distracting eyes.

Any chance of furthering a conversation about healing died when Percy barged into the room with Lou Ellen, holding a massive first-aid kit above his head as if it was a trophy. "I'm here to save lives!" he announced. "Nico!" He pointed dramatically at the Forensic Sciences major. "Your life will be saved!"

* * *

It was universal (or towniversal?) that the college and the town were weird.

Okay, so there were some rumors about how there were often strange lights in the woods, a few local legends about a monster or two in the lake, jokes about monsters and mayhem, but what town didn't had these tales?

Will's didn't. He grew up in one of the more normal towns that surrounded New Olympia. A town that never prepared him to open a snap from Lou Ellen that had her giving a mysterious shape rising from the water the thumbs up.

He would blame the eccentricity of her being an arts student, but there were other examples. He was officially used to _X-Files_ weird, just not to murderous weird. It was on the spectrum that Nico was on, and not because Will was always annoyed by him, but he had other reasons.

Nico had some…habits. Maybe murderous habits if google would come up with anything substantial to prove his theories. Coming in and out at odd hours, always tracking dirt that had a color that fit nowhere else on campus, a terrible taste in music, even more terrible jokes about dead things in his major, but there were the bones and books to think about.

As a pre-med student, Will was very much familiar with the library. He knew that it didn't had ominous tomes bound in dark leather and written in weird languages. He also knew as a med student that the bones he found while cleaning weren't human. Too small to be human, thankfully; but it was still very creepy.

Will hated having a creepy roommate.

He gently put the bones pack in the box, and put it back in the closet where he could eventually convince himself that it was the stress getting to him.

"It's not like he's an axe-wielding murder or anything," Will said. He got to his desk and turned on his laptop. "There is an explanation for this. There totally is."

Google said otherwise, and recommended some of the newest YA paranormal romance series.

Will closed his laptop shut. "I hate life."

Several weeks and more trails of graveyard dirt later, Will grabbed a hoodie for a disguise and a medical textbook as a weapon.

"Have you considered any other option?" Lou Ellen had asked earlier that day. "Because there are other options rather than being a creepy stalker."

"There are bones under his bed," Will had argued. _"Bones!"_

"Are they human?"

"No."

"Good. Now shut up and get back to studying for tomorrow's exam."

* * *

Will did not.

He couldn't even get close to the building that Nico had entered because something was rustling in the bushes by the steps.

He raised his expensive textbook. "I have science!" he warned.

Two spots of glowing light appeared in the bush, directed at Will. A crack of lightning and thunder suddenly filled the air, showing the silhouette of something very large behind the door in front of Will…

A month of constant stress from Nico and the pre-med program, and Will screamed louder than he thought was possible.

 _ZMBIES!_ ! he texted Lou Ellen when he scrambled back to his dorm, shaking in terror.

 _change your major_ , she texted back _. the stress is getting to you._ There was an emoji of a smiley face. It didn't help.

Will bit his thumb, thinking about which explanation could work. _Vampire?_ If it was vampires, then he could handle it because of his religious _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ marathons.

 _oh my goooooood_

 _You have any better ideas?_

 _sleep deprivation. stress. this student center has yoga every friday._

* * *

Will reasoned that he saving the world, or at the very least preventing an outbreak of the undead on campus. He was breaking one of the cardinal sins of having a roommate, and went to go see what was under Nico's bed.

There were more weird books, a silver ring in the shape of a skull, some socks, a collection of Myth-O-Magic that had some impressive cards, and a knife.

"Holy crap." Will held it gingerly by the handle, wanting to touch it as little as possible. "I am never doing a random selection ever again."

"That's because you make a terrible Veronica Mars."

And there was Nico.

He was standing behind Will, shuffling his feet and picking at the sleeves of his jacket.

There was silence.

"I'm not evil," Nico said carefully, slowly saying each word. He nudged at the knife with his boot.

"That's what an evil murderer would say," Will said. He blinked and realized he was alone in a room with a potential evil doer. He lunged to the door—

—that shut by itself and even locked.

Will's life flashed before his eyes.

Nico cleared his throat. "Yeah, so. I suck at this part. Sorry." He took a deep breath to say something, but never got to finish it because Will tackled him.

They both fell to the floor. Arms and legs wrapped around each other, Will's in a fierce need to survive and Nico's trying to push him off. Will never much experience fighting, but adrenaline was a wonderful thing even if Nico was better. Under the pre-med student, he headbutted him and then kneed him in the stomach. Rolling on top, Nico covered Will's mouth, pressing down tightly. For someone that was scrawny and stick-thin, he was surprisingly strong.

"I'm trying to stop a minor apocalypse," he snapped. "I can't do that if I'm dead, now can I?"

Dazed, Will nodded and mumbled something under his cold hand.

Nico let out a deep sigh full of relief and removed his hand. "Where do you want to start?" he asked, getting off of Will, who was blushing.

It then goes like this:

Magic's real, there were people with these abilities on campus, and a powerful ghost of one that was buried somewhere nearby that wanted to cause a slight apocalypse. Only a slight one, but it was a problem because that apocalypse would trigger someone that could cause a bigger apocalypse, who would trigger another… It was a very a very stressful conversation. Will didn't like it.

"Is there anything else I should know?" he asked the very secret group of students with special abilities that were all in need of medical help. They were all at the place where generations of people like them would go to discuss their abilities and test them out. Instead of it being a secret a passageway in the library, or a magical mirror that could transport them somewhere, it was the basement of the depleted art building.

It was little more of a surprise that he was able to recognize so many of the 'talented' people. There was Annabeth, still dressed from judo practice; Percy and Leo, both were trying to see who could make the most jokes about the situation;the big guy that had scared Will was Tyson; Hazel, who was petting a sleeping cat that she swore was actually her boyfriend, and a few others that conveniently lived in the same dorm as Will and Nico.

Percy didn't even blink. "There's this centaur that randomly appears on campus. He helps and offers cryptic advice. There's also this mummy in the attic that says the occasional prophecy."

Of course there was.

"We stopped this senior from trying human sacrifices last semester," Leo Valdez added. He more interested in etching his initials in the hard wood of the table than seeing Will's expression. Grover was playing a jaunty tune with his flute in the background nearby, oblivious as he was experimenting something new with his abilities.

" _Human sacrifices?"_

"He wanted to move up from teddy bears."

Annabeth flicked the underside of Leo's ear. "Everyone sucks at this." She then flicked at the branches that were growing from the desk. "Grover!"

"The point is that we try to help." Nico sat on the table next to Will, swinging his legs back and forth. "What do you say, Solace? Want to fight the good fight with us?"

Will stared at him. He thought about it what adventures could be in store for him, the excitement and adventure in a world full of unexpected possibilities. Maybe he could help them save the world. Maybe he had latent abilities. Maybe. _Maybe. Maybe. Maybe._

"I'll join if you promise to clean your side of the room," said Will. "Then we'll talk."


End file.
